If you have already taken the time to read design droplets networking for designers 101 then you will definitely know that your professional network is a very powerful tool in your industrial design toolkit. However one of the questions I was asked lately was ‘What sort of people should I actively seek to have in my network?’. My answer to this would be network with a very wide range of people. This will provide a lot more opportunities than just networking with designers. If you are an consultant or independent designer there are several key professionals you should have in your network that will compliment your Industrial Design expertise. In the case of an in house design team, these same people will make an excellent addition to the design team.Without further ado, in no particular order:
A Mechanical engineer.
How will the mechanism work? How much stress does that strut need to be able to take? A mechanical engineer can help answer these questions and many many more.
A Physiologist/Human factors specialist.
How often do you as a designer need to know a piece of anthropometric information (the sizes of people and their various body parts) for that chair you are designing? Or maybe know what is going to happen to the muscles and spine if someone sits in said chair?
A Cognitive Psychologist
How will users perceive how the design works now that is enhanced by computer intelligence? What mental processes are they going through when using your design? Now that we have electronics in almost everything, the design context has expanded to include the way the mind works.
A Sociologist
Designing a system? As systems become increasingly complex a sociologist can help designers to understand the relationships between users, objects, interfaces and overall systems.
An Electronics Engineer.
With so many products now being designed with computers and circuitry inside its certainly beneficial to know someone who can provide advice on what is actually going to make the next iPod go.
An Anthropologist
Increasingly we as designers are designing products that need to transcend cultural boundaries. This means there that design will need to be able to hold up to cultural differences if it is going to succeed in the market place. Should you use red as the main colour? Does the name of your product mean something else in another language? An Anthropologist can help you navigate this potential minefield.
A Sustainability Expert
With environmental sustainability an increasingly important issue, you might need such an expert within arms reach at all times.
An Interaction Designer
With the advent of touch screens and in the not to distant future flexible displays, I am sure we are going to see many products with interfaces. Viewed by many as a potential future of the Industrial Design Profession, knowing an excellent interaction designer could prove invaluable.
Do you have any other suggestions for other professionals designers should actively seek to have in their professional network or that in house design teams should be working with? Share them in the comments.
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A philosopher and psychiatrist ! Do we really new products? Why do I crave for my idea to produced so the world can buy it?
This is a very interesting article for a designer.
Nice post. I like that basically what you’re pointing out is that we designers need to be collaborative. We sometimes try to do it all, but if we tap these people for help our work will be much more actionable and successful. It would be a bonus if these people knew how to work with designers. Many of these listed are scientists, and if they can remove some of their technical rigor they can be even more helpful early on in upstream development.
If I can add two more, I think knowing a marketing person and a finance person are crucial for making your work actionable to fit within business strategies.
Thanks for all the great comments.
@Fabien – excellent suggestions
Designers certainly need their heads read sometimes. I know that occasional I do.
@Davidson – thank your for dropping by to comment.
@Michael – Exactly. I believe in many cases Collaboration is the key to excellent design. If you look at all great designers they are part of a team. You are certainly right that often it helps if the ’scientist’ or engineer is able to work cohesively with the designer. Thanks for the other two excellent additions.